Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has bested series creator Infinity Ward, IGN reports Activision parent company Vivendi declared last week. IW will get to fire back, though, as it has finished restructing after its major staffing losses this year.

"The Treyarch studio, which made this year's game, has done better than what the Infinity Ward studio could achieve a year ago," said CEO Jean-Bernard Levy at the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference on Friday. He's certainly right sales-wise, as Cod Blops broke the entertainment industry-wide launch day and five-day sales records set by Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year. Cold Blops sold-through over $650 million in five days after launching on November 9.

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Levy also reveals that "We have reconstructed Infinity Ward," adding that the company is "very happy" with the result. IW suffered a mass exodus of staff after Activision fired co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella in March for allegedly trying to "steal" the studio and using its resources for personal benefit. Around thirty-five had left as of May, with a number joining West and Zampella at their new studio Respawn Entertainment.

Infinity Ward will head back down the Cod mine, joining Treyarch and fledging studio Sledgehammer Games.
"We believe this set up of studios working on Call of Duty has demonstrated it can do very well," Levy opined. It's been rumoured, bizarrely, that Sledgehammer might be working on an instalment starring space marines.